MELBOURNE

Whitley College site in Melbourne is being offered to the market for the first time

2016-04-26T14:00:00Z

The Residential College in Parkville is popular for student accommodation nearby Melbourne University and is located within a tightly held precinct. Only 3 Royal Parade properties have been offered to the market in the past few years.

​​Global property services firm, JLL has been appointed to offer for sale 271-273 Royal Parade in Parkville, just north of the Melbourne CBD.

JLL Directors, Noral Wild and James Kaufman will handle the transaction via an Expressions of Interest process closing on 2nd June, 2016.

Following the completion of a strategic review The Whitley College Council has established a five year plan for the development of its Theological College operations which has led to a decision to seek a new owner and operator for the Residential College property.

This is the first time this property has been offered to the market. The building was originally completed in 1965.The residential and student accommodation facility includes 130 beds and has enjoyed consistently strong occupancy since completion.

JLL's Head of Social Infrastructure, Ms Wild said, "The property is suitable for continuing use as student accommodation with the opportunity to further expand the accommodation through redevelopment. There is potential for other residential use. The majority of the students living at Whitley are studying at Melbourne University which is only 900 metres away on Royal Parade."

"Parkville is an amazing location in Melbourne's inner city fringe, just 3km from the Melbourne CBD, surrounded by Melbourne University, RMIT, Melbourne's knowledge precinct and extensive parklands," said Ms Wild.

JLL's Director, Sales and Investments – Victoria, James Kaufman said, "This is an extremely tightly held precinct. Only three properties in Royal Parade have been offered to the market in the past few years. This is one of the last significant freehold parcels of land, totalling 4887 square metres in Parkville near the knowledge precinct."

Ms Wild said, "Parkville is a major draw card for international and interstate/rural students and has one of the largest student populations Melbourne. By 2030, the estimate for the number of people travelling to the precinct for study-related activities is expected to grow to 100,000 according to the City of Melbourne 2015 daily population forecast report. As a consequence, this will create considerable demand for student accommodation." "We are already seeing Melbourne University's residential colleges experiencing annual waiting lists of students," Ms Wild added.

Melbourne is the education capital of Australia and has been ranked by the QS Best Student Cities in 2016 as the No 2 best student city in the world behind Paris and ahead of Tokyo for international students.

According to the Australian Government Department of Education and Training statistics (international student enrolment data 2015) 645,185 International students studied in Australia in 2015. Of those, 272,095 were at the higher education level. Victoria recorded over a third of higher education international student enrolments in 2015 with 91,487 university enrolments.

Mr Kaufman concluded, "We expect to receive strong interest from student accommodation operators and given the large land holding and the prime location we have no doubt residential developers will also be interested in such a significant property."